Hal Rogers, state leaders praise overturning of Roe v. Wade

Jun. 24—Kentucky leaders are responding to Friday's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturns the 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade, a decision that immediately triggers a state law banning all forms of abortion.

Hal Rogers, the U.S. Representative from Somerset called it a "historic action that will help preserve the sanctity of life in America," while Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said it was "courageous and correct."

The ruling was technically on a case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which the U.S. Court upheld a Mississippi ruling that bans abortions after 15 weeks.

That, in turn, overturned a 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — which upheld the decisions made in the original Roe v. Wade case.

Friday's decision was 5-4 among the Supreme Court justices.

Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the court opinion, stated "The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

"We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives."

Just minutes after the decision was announced, Congressman Rogers issued a statement praising the court's ruling.

"The original Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 has resulted in approximately 63 million abortions — a moral injustice and heartbreaking loss of innocent lives nationwide. This monumental decision restores regulatory power to each state. It immediately blocks all access to abortion in states like Kentucky, where trigger laws were enacted to put the Supreme Court's ruling into effect simultaneously," Rogers said.

He went on to say that with other "long-standing pro-life protections" under threat from Democratic leaders, "like stripping the Hyde Amendment and the Helms Amendment from appropriations bills that prohibit tax payer dollars from being used for abortions in the United States and overseas," Rogers would continue to work towards preserving pro-life protections.

McConnell, likewise, saw the decision as a win for states who have enacted anti-abortion laws.

"For 50 years, states have been unable to enact even modest protections for unborn children. More than 90% of Europe restricts abortion on demand after 15 weeks, but every state in America has been forced to allow it more than a month past that, after a baby can feel pain, yawn, stretch, and suck his or her thumb. Judicial activists declared that every state had to handle abortion like China and North Korea and no state could handle it like France or Germany.

"Not anymore. Now the American people get their voice back," McConnell said.

Senator Rand Paul said that he had been a sponsor of a federal law to overturn Roe v. Wade since he began in Washington.

"This Supreme Court decision is a monumental step to not only protect life, but also for the court to finally correct the mistake it made and return governance back to the people and their elected representatives," Paul said.

Many of Kentucky's state-level leaders praised the decision. Auditor Mike Harmon said the decision "reaffirms the work of myself and other current and former state legislators, establishing Kentucky as a place where all life, both born and unborn, is protected."

However, Governor Andy Beshear took a negative view on the decision.

"Today's decision triggers an extremist Kentucky law that creates a total ban in Kentucky that will eliminate all options for victims of rape or incest.

"As the former chief prosecutor of Kentucky, I know that these violent crimes happen, and not having options for victims of rape and incest is wrong."

Like Kentucky, Mississippi is one of several states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books that ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after six weeks of pregnancy.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Joining Justice Alito in favor of the decision were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are appointees of previous President Donald Trump. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — the diminished liberal wing of the court — were in dissent.

Chief Justice John Roberts said he would have stopped short of ending the abortion right, noting that he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, and said no more.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.